Ari Aster Latest Celebrity News & Gossip

After “Hereditary” and “Midsommar,” Ari Aster quickly became a young American filmmaker to watch for the horror and A24 crowds. But those fans, and pretty much everything else, didn’t care for Aster’s third feature, “Beau Is Afraid,” which tanked hard at the box office this spring.

Nathan Zellner and David Zellner’s Sasquatch Sunset is stomping into circa 850 theaters this weekend after debuting in 9 with a solid opening for a film many could find weird. A tribe of Sasquatch, possibly the last of their kind, live and love in the woods of northern California, where it was shot.

Sasquatch Sunset directors Nathan and David Zellner (Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter) always wondered what these hairy giants do when they’re not walking – the only Bigfoot footage available has been a minute of a supposed Sasquatch wandering in the northern California woods. They decided to flesh that out in unique dialogue-free comedic imagining of the creatures’ daily life – eating, fighting, etc. Stars Jesse Eisenberg, Riley Keough, Christophe Zajac-Denek and Nathan Zellner are unrecognizable as the hairy tribe of four that entranced Sundance (see Deadline review). Bleecker Street is opening the film, written by David Zellner, executive produced by Ari Aster, in 9 theaters in New York, LA, San Francisco and Austin, ahead of a big jump to about 800 screens next week.

EXCLUSIVE: Several sources tell Deadline that the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema circuit is up for sale.

Director Ari Aster has set the cast for his next movie with A24!

Ever since “Beau Is Afraid,” horror filmmaker Ari Aster has been touting his next project, a follow-up project that reunites him with Joaquin Phoenix. Describing it as a “Western comedy” set during the pandemic, the cast details are finally out via A24 (see below), confirming several rumors about the project over the past few months.

Ari Aster, the visionary filmmaker behind horror pics Hereditary and Midsommar and last year’s darkly comic Beau Is Afraid, has locked in his starriest cast yet for his next A24 film, Eddington. Actors set to join the previously announced Joaquin Phoenix include Emmy and Golden Globe nominee Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us), Emma Stone (fresh off her second Oscar win for Poor Things), Luke Grimes (Yellowstone), Dune: Part Two‘s Austin Butler, Deirdre O’Connell (Outer Range), Micheal Ward (Top Boy), and Clifton Collins Jr. (Jockey).

Peter Debruge Chief Film Critic Austin-based indie directors David and Nathan Zellner have spent more time thinking about Sasquatch than most filmmakers do musing about human beings. In 2011, they brought “Sasquatch Birth Journal 2” to the Sundance Film Festival, a four-minute faux nature documentary in which a hirsute creature can be seen giving birth to an equally furry infant.

Even by Nicolas Cage’s standards, Dream Scenario is a strange movie — but mostly in that there is nothing at all unusual about the character he plays. A mediocre biologist whose research is routinely stolen by other scientists, Paul Matthews becomes famous overnight when he starts appearing in other people’s dreams. How and why is never explained, but Kristoffer Borgli’s surreal satire has a lot to say about today’s social media-driven society. Speaking from his home in Las Vegas (“The more romantic way of saying it is: I’m in the Mojave Desert”), the actor explains how he saw himself in this most unlikely premise.

Ari Aster and Yorgos Lanthimos, who helmed “The Favourite,” have each developed an unmistakable filmmaking voice. But this year, both stretched into brand-new cinematic territory. With “Beau Is Afraid,” Aster crafted a nearly three-hour fever dream chronicling the mental unraveling of its profoundly neurotic title character, played to the hilt by Joaquin Phoenix.

Valerie Wu Intern Directing duo David and Nathan Zellner’s latest film “Sasquatch Sunset,” starring Riley Keough (“Daisy Jones and the Six”) and Jesse Eisenberg (“The Social Network”), is slated for a theatrical release by film distribution company Bleecker Street in 2024. No plot details have yet been announced. The film depicts “a year in the life of a singular family,” according to its description, and Eisenberg will be playing a hairy, big-footed Sasquatch, which he previously relayed to Variety.

Bleecker Street has quietly snapped up U.S. rights to Sasquatch Sunset, the newest feature from renowned brother filmmakers David and Nathan Zellner (Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter), for release in theaters in 2024.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor “Saturday Night Live” alum Aidy Bryant has been tapped to host the 2024 Film Independent Spirit Awards, which will once again stream live on Film Independent’s YouTube channel and IMDB.com from its signature Santa Monica beach tent location. Last year’s ceremony marked the first time since 1997 that the annual celebration of independent cinema and television wouldn’t air on the IFC network after it did not renew its licensing deal.

A24 has wrapped production on Death of a Unicorne, its new film starring Paul Rudd (Ant-Man franchise) and Jenna Ortega (Wednesday) that has been at the center of the online rumor mill for months. Others officially set to join the duo as part of the ensemble include Richard E. Grant (Saltburn) Téa Leoni (Flirting with Disaster), Will Poulter (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), Anthony Carrigan (Barry), Sunita Mani (GLOW), Jessica Hynes (Shaun of the Dead), and Stephen Park (Asteroid City).

Zack Sharf Digital News Director A24 spent $35 million to bring “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” director Ari Aster‘s third feature, “Beau Is Afraid,” to life on the big screen. The film flopped at the box office with a global gross just over $10 million and became one of the most divisive releases of the year. In a new interview with Vanity Fair, Aster spoke bluntly about the film’s disappointing reception.

The trailer for Nicolas Cage‘s new movie has been released!

You’ll forgive us for not seeing everything at the Toronto International Film Festival, some things fall through the cracks, and arguably the biggest, one we’re still dying to see is “Dream Scenario” starring Nicolas Cage. It’s a surreal A24 comedy starring Cage, co-produced by Ari Aster (“Beau Is Afraid”), with the music made by occasional Arcade Fire musician Owen Pallett (aka Final Fantasy).

Meet Nicolas Cage — the man of your dreams — in the official trailer for “Dream Scenario”.

Olivia Rodrigo is sharing her thoughts on the experience she had watching Beau is Afraid, the Joaquin Phoenix surrealist tragicomedy horror film written, directed and co-produced by Ari Aster.

Jenelle Riley Deputy Awards and Features Editor Variety has announced its 10 Actors to Watch for 2023. Honorees include two actors making their movie debuts in films from Oscar winners as well as thesps working with filmmakers like Martin Scorsese, Todd Haynes and Lulu Wang.

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Add Peter Jackson to the list of high profile directors who adore “Talk to Me,” the new A24 horror movie from sibling filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou that’s become a word-of-mouth box office sensation this summer. The “Lord of the Rings” Oscar winner issued a statement through Ahi, one of the film’s distributors across Aotearoa and Australia, in which he singled out “Talk to Me” as one of the best horror efforts in recent years. “It’s relentlessly scary and disturbing – in the best possible way,” Jackson said (via Total Film).

A24’s supernatural horror Talk To Me by first time filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou blew past box office projections grossing over $10 million on 2,340 screens opening weekend. The breakout by the first-time filmmaker brothers and popular YouTubers from Australia was no. six at the domestic box office.

Even though “Beau Is Afraid” quickly became a polarizing film, there’s no denying that Ari Aster is still one of the most interesting filmmakers working today. While ‘Beau’ wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea, there are still plenty of folks out there excitedly waiting to see what else the filmmaker has to come.

Jazz Tangcay Artisans Editor Ari Aster‘s three-hour surrealist drama “Beau Is Afraid” marked a tonal shift from his nightmare-inducing films “Midsommar” and “Hereditary.” In the feature, which tackles inherited trauma and mommy issues, Joaquin Phoenix plays Beau, who finds himself on an Odyssean journey to return home after his mother’s untimely death. To score the film, Aster recruited “Midsommar” composer Bobby Krlic, but, unlike their last collaboration, creating the music of “Beau Is Afraid” was a “long and arduous process” as they worked to crack the sound of Beau’s journey. Here, the two discuss their collaboration and how one cue, “Suburban Dream,” helped unlock the film’s sonic landscape.

After a scene-stealing role in “The White Lotus” Season 2, in addition to great performances in projects like “Support the Girls,” “Columbus,” and “Montana Story,” Haley Lu Richardson has become one of the most exciting actresses working today.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer Aidy Bryant is set to star in “Lonely Hearts Club,” a dramedy series based on an episode of the Crime Junkies podcast, currently in the works at Peacock. “Beau Is Afraid” filmmaker Ari Aster is executive producing the project. Set in the late 1940s, “Lonely Hearts Club” is described as a darkly comedic true crime thriller about a lonely woman who falls in love with a dim but handsome con man. Together they form an unlikely “Loser-Bonnie-and-Clyde”-style partnership that ends in lies, murder and the electric chair. The show is based on an episode of Ashley Flowers’ Crime Junkie podcast entitled “Infamous: The ‘Lonely Hearts’ Killers.”

Mariah Carey is stepping out for the night!

We’ve known, for a while now, that Martin Scorsese is a big fan of Ari Aster. Several years ago, the legendary director raved about Aster’s second film, “Midsommar.” Now, as Aster receives some of the harshest critiques of his relatively young career, thanks to his third film, “Beau is Afraid,” Scorsese is there to back him up, yet again.  READ MORE: ‘Beau Is Afraid’ Review: Joaquin Phoenix Guides Ari Aster’s Hilarious, Horrific, Despairing Nightmare, Hellish Mom Comedy During a Q&A alongside Ari Aster (via A24), Martin Scorsese talks about the young filmmaker’s career, up to this point, and how he believes Aster is one of the best directors working today.

Beau is Afraid (★★☆☆☆), Ari Aster’s ambitious third feature film, in which I weighed how unprofessional it would be to walk out of a three-hour screening early, convinced as I was by that juncture that I was not enjoying myself and would likely not enjoy myself for the duration of the movie.It was about 20 minutes in.If you like vivid nightmares driven by existential depression and crushing grief — which, is to say, if you’re looking for a movie that acts as a mirror for the encroaching suffocation of American life in 2023 — you will love Beau is Afraid.Unlike most horror films that seek to provoke a feeling of escapism from the drudgery of daily life, Aster has drilled deep into the fragile psyche of a nation reeling from two decades of outsized culture war trauma and buttered up those sensitive neuroses with cayenne pepper.That may sound appealing to some viewers. I personally don’t understand watching a movie to be further reminded why everything is on fire with possibly no hope of recovery or redemption.

After posting giant per screen numbers at four theaters last weekend, A24’s Beau Is Afraid  jumps to 926 for the distributor’s third outing with Ari Aster. It’s a very different film from his horror favorites Hereditary and Midsommar but one the distributor hopes will cement the director’s place as a modern auteur.

Jordan Moreau Nothing can keep the dead down. “Evil Dead Rise,” the latest movie in the horror franchise created by Sam Raimi, has made $2.5 million in Thursday previews at the domestic box office. It’s a strong start for a horror movie in April, but it won’t be enough to stop the mushroom-powered, meteoric rise of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which is projected to earn another massive haul with $45 million to $50 million in its third weekend. Universal and Illumination’s hit Nintendo adaptation already has $724 million globally and will soon pass “Minions: The Rise of Gru” as the highest-grossing animated movie in the post-pandemic era. “Evil Dead Rise” is expected to scare up between $15 million and $20 million in its opening weekend, with some predictions as high as $25 million. It’s the fifth movie in Warner Bros. and New Line’s “Evil Dead” franchise, which began way back in 1981 with Raimi’s original, low-budget horror hit starring Bruce Campbell as zombie killer Ash Williams. The previous entry, simply titled “Evil Dead,” made $97.5 million from a $17 million budget in 2013.

Ari Aster has made a career out of the horror and twisted comedy of anxiety. Regardless of where each individual audience member is in their life or the experiences they’ve had, this is what makes films such as “Hereditary” and “Midsommar” universally loved and relatable.

Ari Aster‘s “Beau Is Afraid” isn’t even in theaters yet, but the “Midsommar” and “Hereditary” already has his fourth film lined up. World Of Reel has the scoop: Aster will start shooting his next movie, “Eddington,” this summer, with Joaquin Phoenix set to lead its ensemble cast.

Filmmaker Ari Aster has oedipal issues. The artist has deeply complicated and unresolved issues with his mother that go back to his earliest movies (to this day, Aster won’t really talk about his mother in the press and has hinted at a troubled, rocky relationship).

Mariah Carey was one of the celeb guests who stepped out to support the new A24 movie Beau Is Afraid at the L.A. premiere!